Rose Hill Cemetery

Duane's take

The way I tell it, I'm drawing straight from the words on the official marker for Rose Hill Cemetery, right here in Swisher County. So let's go back to where it all begins. October 1890.

Swisher County had only been organized three months prior, and Tulia had just been named the county seat. The land out here was new to the ledger, fresh to the map. And into that newness came grief.

A family named Harral, L. J. and N. J.

Harral, had a son. Louis H. Harral, eighteen years old.

On October 17th, 1890, Louis died. His parents went to a man named T. W.

Adams, the landowner, and asked permission to bury their boy on a hillside south of the Middle Tule Creek. Adams said yes. And that hillside received its first recorded soul.

Twelve days later. Twelve. A boy named Robert Alonzo Hutchinson, four years old, son of W.

B. and Virginia Hutchinson, died. And they brought him to that same hill, to rest near Louis. Two families.

Two losses. Twelve days apart. That hillside had become something before anyone had given it a name.

Years passed. In 1906, five acres of land surrounding those graves were officially set aside as a community cemetery. The ground that grief had quietly consecrated was now recognized by deed.

Then, in 1916, a woman named Lula B. Tomlinson stepped forward and formed a cemetery association. And she gave the place its name.

Rose Hill. The association was officially chartered by the state in 1937, and it carries on to this day, still maintaining the site. Now, among those buried on this hill, there are veterans of the Civil War, the Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.

There are city and county elected officials, men and women who served this community across the generations. And then there are two names that deserve a particular moment of quiet. Two law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty, both buried here at Rose Hill.

John Mosley, who died in 1933. And Robert Potter, known as Bob, who died on Christmas Day, 1960. Christmas Day.

A hillside south of the Middle Tule Creek, where a grieving family once asked a landowner for a small patch of permission. That is where Rose Hill began. And that is where Swisher County keeps its memory.

What the marker says

The history of this community cemetery dates to October 1890, just three months after Swisher County was organized and Tulia was named county seat. The first recorded burial here is that of 18-year old Louis H. Harral, who died on October 17, 1890. His parents, L. J. & N. J. Harral, obtained permission from landowner T. W. Adams to bury their son on this hillside south of the Middle Tule Creek. Twelve days later, 4-year old Robert Alonzo Hutchinson, son of W.B. & Virginia Hutchinson, died and was buried on the hill near Louis. In 1906 five acres of land surrounding the graves were officially set aside for a community cemetery. A cemetery association was formed in 1916 under the leadership of Lula B. Tomlinson, who named the cemetery Rose Hill. The association was officially chartered by the state in 1937, and continues to maintain the site. Among those interred here are numerous city and county elected officials, including two law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty: John Mosley (d. 1933) and Robert (Bob) Potter (d. Christmas Day, 1960). Also buried here are veterans of the Civil War, the Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam. (1994)